DANIEL Andrews and Mark McGowan both have been awarded Australia's highest civilian honour, the Companion of the Order of Australia, in the King's Birthday Honours. King's birthday or April Fools' Day?
Peter Dolan, Lambton
We need a stronger online cop patrolling beat
I DON'T get it. Recently, on a few occasions I have attempted to log into a streamed internet channel that I am paying for. I find that I can't log in without some digital chicanery or paying extra. The provider has arbitrarily increased my monthly tariff or changed their rules about guest users. The streaming channels seem to be able to do this with impunity. Perhaps I have foolishly signed my contractual rights away when I accepted their services.
But can they do this? Where is the NSW Fair Trading when you need them? With more and more products and services sold online, it is about time there was an effective digital cop on the beat, fining bulk providers, rather than going after the small fry scammers and fraudsters.
There is also the matter of free-to-air versus pay-to-watch. Have you noticed that there is far less rugby union, boxing and sport in general that is free-to-air? In my opinion, this is killing these codes of sport. Those codes that haven't yet died, such as AFL and NRL, have gotten into bed with the devil of online gambling. Most of the profits of these offshore gaming companies go to overseas shareholders. Meanwhile, the government and these sporting codes themselves are not complaining. Both have found a rich vein of gold. Never mind that more Australians are becoming gambling addicts, and many young fans think that you must bet if you are watching sport.
Geoff Black, Frankston
Influence is everywhere in politics
AN interesting week in politics. Mid-week, Prime Minister Albanese and his ministers excoriated the Greens for their Trump-like incitement of violence against Labor MPs, their electorate offices and their staff. There is no doubt that the outrageous claims by the Greens leader, Adam Bandt, against the government have the potential to incite further violence, not just against Labor MPs and their staff but also against Jewish Australians and institutions.
It has long been suggested in conservative quarters that the Labor Party is beholden to the Greens because of their dependence on Greens' preferences at elections. That myth has now been well and truly exploded.
On Saturday, Coalition leader Dutton all but conceded that the Liberal Party, and especially his tenure as Opposition Leader, is at the mercy of the Nationals. He announced that the Coalition would finally abandon their tokenistic support for renewable energy and would adopt the development of nuclear reactors as their tokenistic answer to the climate crisis. This is a direct capitulation to the climate change denying, fossil fuel championing Nationals, who have now well and truly asserted themselves as the dominant party in the Coalition. It could also well be Peter Dutton's political suicide note.
John Ure, Mount Hutton
Nagging conscience is a key role
The Herald's editorial ("Our political discourse is under threat", Opinion, 7/6), calls out the Greens as being somehow responsible for the recent demonstrations, attacks on parliamentarians and their offices.
In comparison to past protests, what Australia is now experiencing appears more like a harbour cruise.
Take, for example, the approach of Emmeline Pankhurst's suffragettes back in the early twentieth century. These women, after years of peaceful protesting, felt their voices were falling on deaf ears and decided to change direction by using violence as a means of being heard. Members of the public were encouraged to participate.
They smashed windows, firebombed homes and chained themselves to railings outside of Downing Street and Buckingham Palace. They went on hunger strikes and threatened MPs making their way to and from work. One woman, Theresa Garnett, accosted the then Home Secretary, Winston Churchill, with a whip. These desperate measures in no way diminished democracy but added to it, with a rightful gain.
The Greens may never form a government in their own right but when it comes to issues like the environment and the cruel deaths of innocents by bloody-minded aggressors, I believe they along with activists are Parliament's nagging conscience.
Julie Robinson, Cardiff
Curiosities abound in world titles
THANK you Ray Dinneen ("Name game pain for newsreaders", Letters, 10/6) for asking about the pronunciation of my surname. He is correct that I pronounce it with a longish "a" as in Jameson not the short "a" typically used in Jamieson. James rather than Jam. Mr Dinneen was also correct in his guess that Professor Graeme Jameson, inventor of the Jameson Cell, is my father, and we both continue to insist on this pronunciation.
I remember interviews with newsreaders over the decades who said names were the most troublesome area of their work. I feel for Mr Dinneen on that score. You can learn the names of all countries and capitals and look up many smaller towns or geographic locations, but names can be surprisingly unique and strange. The English have some very curious traditions. Cholmondley is pronounced Chumley; Bruttenholm is Broom; St John is Syngen. Can readers think of others in English, or similar curiosities from other cultures or languages?
Michael Jameson, New Lambton
Not all models worth relying upon
JOHN Arnold, in response to your letter "Climate woes began Albo's reign" (Letters, 10/6), it was definitely an interesting read. You suggested that "modelling" clearly shows that if we had, we would not only be further down the renewable track, but we would all be now paying cheaper prices for power. Interesting, answer everyone this then: is that "modelling" the same as the "modelling" that was used to give everyone a $275 cut on their power bills? That was such incredibly accurate "modelling", wasn't it? Enough said.
Owen Keegan, Cooks Hill
Maybe they didn't do enough
STEVE Barnett ("Welfare counts at top and bottom", Letters, 5/6), you stated that you can't recall a Conservative government paying the electricity bills for former Labor prime ministers and asked me to correct you if you were wrong. Well after considerable thought on the matter I thought maybe you are right, because I wrote down everything I could think of that they did during their ten years in government and I wrote it all down on the back of a postage stamp.
Barry Reed, Islington
Nuclear no nightmare alternative
SO, the non-partisan Lowy Institute's recent poll found that over 60 per cent of us now support nuclear power. It seems that there are now more rational thinkers who can see that the government's green dream is more of a nightmare and their emissions target is a fantasy without the introduction of the cleanest form of energy. So why is Labor so reluctant to lift the nuclear ban so the market can decide what is viable? In my opinion it can only be that they are terrified of being wrong again, just as they were on the Voice referendum.
